"Anne, just concentrate. That's all it is," Ben tells me. Thats easy for him to say. It's not him that has to do this stupid thing.
I sit deeper in my my chair and stare at the stupid can about 20 feet away from me. I give it a death stare, hoping it'll help me complete this task. I'm starting to get a headache from trying to levitate this small can of soda with my mind.
It doesn't budge one bit.
"Ugh, I'm not doing this. It's useless," I tell him, standing up. He's very frustrated with me and I can tell because his eye is twitching.
"What's your problem? It's not that you can't do it. Your just not trying." Ben walks over to me, probably trying to intimidate me, but I stand my ground.
"This is not what I came here for. This is a waste of time and I have no idea what's going on back home. I only came here to find that witch." I take my frustration out on the soda can. I kick the stool the can is on and it flies towards a wall.
Ben grabs a hold of my shoulders and looks me right in the eye.
"If you think your going to find a witch that can control a pack of rogues and a member on the higher court without learning undetectable magic, your crazy."
I smack his hands off my shoulders and practically growl at him.
"I don't need magic. I do great with my combat skills alone." I push past him and exit the room. It was the same room I woke up in the first day I was here. We fixed it up into a training room and it's also my bedroom for my remaining time here.
"Another day of no progress," Lina asks. It's not really a question because she already knows the answer. Lina and Emilia are sitting on the couch. Lina is braiding Emi's hair while she does her homework.
"I shouldn't have agreed to these terms. I don't need help with learning magic. I only need help finding the witch," I tell Ben, who appears next to Lina. I'm really stressing out. I can feel that I'm running out of time.
"Well, then I'm not helping you find the witch," Ben says.
"I don't have time for your immaturity, Ben. You're being ridiculous. If you're not going to help me, then I should just leave."
I turn at the sound of a book slamming on a table and see a fuming Emi glaring at me.
"You're being an idiot, Anne. You may be strong physically, but you definitely can't move as efficiently when you're pregnant. A witch that can control whoever they want and is using undetectable magic can definitely beat you. You won't even get close enough to them to be able to use combat. If you don't use your stupid head, you'll get yourself killed. Why don't you care that you'll kill yourself and your baby? You're not saving anyone if you can't even save yourself," Emilia yells at me.
"Emi, you can't talk to people like that," Lina tells her. She seems to be fed up with how Emi is acting.
"Zumindest habe ich mehr Verstand als sie." Emilia speaks German and stomps off to her room. She slams the door behind her.
"Well, she's probably right. She has more brains than you," Ben says and walks off to his room.
"I'm going to talk to that little girl," Lina says. I stop her in her tracks to Emi's room.
"No, it's fine. I'll talk to her." I know there's something more behind her outburst other than me not wanting to learn undetectable magic. There's no use in just yelling at her for discipline.
Lina walks away in the other direction, giving me permission to speak to Emi.
I knock on her door and she tells me I can come in. She's curled up on her bed, faced away from the door.
"If you came in here to yell at me about my actions, go ahead and get it over with," she says. I can hear her sniffling, but she's trying to hide the fact that she's crying. I lay down a few feet away from her on the bed. She turns around in confusion.
"I know I can be very stubborn. I know what I'm doing is stupid, but I have my reasons," I tell her. "Why are you crying," I ask her.
She wipes her tears and does a light chuckle.
"Nothing. You just remind me of my mom a lot," Emi says. I didn't think it would be this easy to get her to talk. Maybe she's been waiting to have someone listen to her for a long time. "She was very stubborn too. It's what got her killed."
"How are you so sure that she's dead," I ask Emi. Ben always has his doubts about his sister and father being dead. She could still be alive.
"All heros die, Anne. It's a known fact. My mom decided to be stupid and use herself as bait."
"It makes her stupid because she wanted to protect her family," I ask Emilia. I just want to know her answer. I hear her sigh.
"Of course it doesn't, but she could of found another way to do it. You have the chance to save yourself and your family. Why won't you take it?" It's like she's begging me to take mercy on her.
"How did it feel when you were learning how to balance your disorder and magic," I ask her. She seems shocked that I pinpointed it, but it isn't hard to point out a person with a disorder when you have one as well.
"Wha-" I cut her off before she can object.
"It made it worse to handle, right? It's already hard enough to keep under control without magic. Now you have to learn how to control it with the effects that magic has on your mind. How'd you keep it under control?"
"How'd you know," she asks me. Emi is more like me than I thought. I knew there was something about her. We both lost people we can't replace and we definitely can't replace the feelings they gave us. It drove us both crazy in similar ways, but also it makes us completely different.
"I'm schizophrenic. What did the doctor say you have?" It's crazy how calm I'm talking about this. As if we were talking about our favorite chip dip.
"Intermittent explosive disorder. I guess you can see why it makes sense. I've probably yelled at you five hundred times since you've been here. I'm sorry."
"It's ok. You're stronger than me. You learned how to use magic and kind of control your disorder at the same time. I settled for combat because it was easier to train my body physically instead of mentally. I don't use magic a lot and I try my best not to. If I can't balance with regular magic, I definitely can't with undetectable magic, which uses only the mind."
I just admitted my biggest fear to a little girl I barely know. Magic is far from dependable and predictable when it's in my hands. Who knows what would happen if I used too much of it and it drove me insane. Emi is stronger and different from me in that way. She balanced her disorder and magic. She doesn't let it control her.
"If you tell Ben about this, I'm sure he can help you balance it. He helped me when he knew I was having trouble balancing it. You really need to learn undetectable magic if you want to find this witch. If you don't, you and everyone you love will end up dead."